Here's a photo of this year's outdoor creche at Our Lady of Perpetual Help church in Ardsley.
Every year I take home one or two figures that are in need of the most repair and do my best to fix them up and repaint them. I've also started to add some scenery so the two wall pieces are new as of last year.
By now mostly all the pieces have been repainted or touched up at some point. Next year, I'm going to add a backdrop so that we won't have to look at the dreaded pine branches any more!
3 comments:
That looks really beautiful in the shot here. Nice job!
These figures are very very rare, made by the Daprato Co. of Chicago from 1899 until 1928. They are plaster and horse hair. I notice the shepherd with horn and the angel are missing. It is almost unheard of to see or find a complete set, these should NEVER NEVER be placed outside or in extreme temps. very very bad. Most churches have disposed of these rare figures for the hideous Fontanini examples---these old figures are very very valuable, and true pieces of art of a bygone era. Bring them in the church!!!!!
Is there a website where I could do more research into Daprato? These creche figures have been repainted a number of times unfortunately. As best as I can tell, the figures are just slush molded plaster and they chip very, very easily. The original paint was flaking off and they needed to be repaired and repainted. Sadly, I'm afraid I've obliterated alot of the original paint!
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